LOVE WARRIOR NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK!

LOVE WARRIOR NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK!

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GLENNON
DOYLE

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: LOVE WARRIOR ARMY UNITE!

July 12, 2016

So, friends — Love Warrior will be released September 6. Love Warrior is the biggest, loudest, wildest truest thing I’ve put out in the world since Amma. I’m scared. Not just because of the content of Love Warrior — but because of the inevitable hoopla that will surround publication.

I was raised by Bubba, who kept two signs on our family room wall. The first said: Don’t Be Humble . . . You’re Not That Great. The second said: Don’t Get Proud—the Size of Your Funeral Will Likely Depend on the Weather.

So, “Shiny, Look At Me!” times are just not my family’s jam. They give me anxiety. Book release is a mountaintop time and I’m just never comfortable up there. On mountaintops the air’s really thin and you can lose your balance and tumble pretty easily. I’m more of a valley girl. The valleys are where the river runs, where all the power is. I don’t trust life up there, so the last book release was hard for me. Love Warrior is about forty times more raw and controversial than Carry On, Warrior is. So basically, in two months, I’ll be BUCK NAKED on the mountaintop shouting LOOK AT ME UP HERE! Lord, have mercy. Deep breaths. I’ll need you to stay close, please.

When a hard time is coming, we gotta prepare, right? We canaries cannot just let these times happen to us — we gotta make a plan to happen to them. We’ve got to be intentional. So I’ve been thinking what I can do to possibly handle the frenzy coming my way, which brought me to another thing Bubba always says: When you get to the party, dance with the one who brought you.

This is what brought us to the party: Love. Service. Sisterhood. Revolution. No mountaintops. No pedestals. Not Me . . . We.

Then so I asked myself the two questions I ask EVERY TIME I’m creating something new:

WHO AM I – PERSONALLY – IN THIS MOMENT?

WHAT DOES THIS MOMENT IN TIME — UNIVERSALLY — REQUIRE OF ME?

Who am I?

I am an artist. And an activist. And a connector. My art and activism is about love, healing, togetherness, upside-down revolution and introducing people to each other — because fear can’t survive proximity.

What is this moment asking of me?

We are in a time of division, fear-mongering, tribalism, war. There is a certain brand of “love” that’s being thrown around that calls for religions, classes, nations, and races to back further into their corners, to shut others out to protect what’s “ours” from what’s “theirs.”

This is not the love of the Love Warrior. The Love Warrior believes — not in the kind of love that retreats, that hides — but in a love that reaches beyond. The Love Warrior reaches beyond her fear and her prejudice and her family and home and pain and perspective and neighborhood and borders and race and religion and ability and gender identity and sexuality to embrace the “other.”

We are one human family but we are broken. Like a puzzle that’s been scattered down here. The Love Warrior pulls all of us back TOGETHER. Because she knows that Love does not retreat. Love reaches beyond.

This moment in time is the moment for the Love Warriors of the world to rise up TOGETHER. We must define love as that which casts out fear of “other” and then let that kind of revolutionary, healing love flow from us to the hurting world like rain. We must love each other or die. That’s what I know.

I don’t want to talk about Love Warrior, I want to BE a Love Warrior among other Love Warriors healing the world in a million fierce, tender ways. You guys . . . here’s what I believe: The healing the world needs right now will be found in feminine leadership. Not just women leaders, but in all leaders who believe in leadership rooted in listening instead speaking, learning instead of teaching, communing instead of competing, gathering instead of hunting, healing instead of fighting, We Instead Of Me. Divided we fall and Together, we rise. So I and my precious, fierce, beloved sister Jennifer decided to plan a traveling rally — a tour that is a Love Warrior Battle Cry and a beacon of hope and a call to love and healing and revolution.

When planning we asked ourselves: What would it look like to ask those who’ve been marginalized to come to center stage to lead us? And so we gathered all kinds of women: black, gay, Latina, transgender, muslim, differently-abled, Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist, and yeah— me: the white Christian lady. We gathered people who operate with a specific kind of leadership that is unapologetically and fiercely and deeply feminine.

You guys. I want to cry. Look at the other co-hosts we found for you:

MY GIRL VALARIE KAUR. Valarie became an activist when a family friend was murdered in a hate crime in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. At twenty years old, she set out across America to chronicle hate crimes against Sikh and Muslim Americans. She is an award-winning filmmaker, civil rights lawyer, and a pioneer in multifaith social justice. She is FIERCE AND KIND AND LOVE AND the best speaker I have ever heard in my life. I kid you not. Watch This. The BEST. And she is OURS.

And now. Meet the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis. I want to sit at her feet and drink in her wisdom.

Rev. Jacqui is a pastor at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, a long-time activist for LGBTQ+ and multicultural inclusion, and a Revolutionary Love Warrior genius. In her words:

“Revolutionary love acknowledges that we are inextricably connected one to the other. Such that when a baby is hungry in Africa, my stomach growls. Such that when a gay person is being transgressed, my straight black behind feels outraged. Such that when children have no health care, we all feel responsible to take care of the village and raise the child. I’m not just talking about love—I’m talking about Revolutionary Love. The kind of love that can fuel our movement. And this movement is built on the backs of ordinary everyday 7th and 8th graders, and mommies and daddies, and teachers and preachers, and lawyers and activists. This movement for love is built on YOU.”

After the violence in Orlando, she shared this rap, this prayer, about how one day –when we celebrate our variety of race, gender, sexuality, and faith — we will “delight in the unique ways we see the world, and lavish love on one another. So much love as to cancel out the hatred.”

And SEANE CORN. You guys- this one has been an activist since before activism was cool. She is — she is PEACE. She is a yoga ambassador and, with her organization Off the Mat, Into the World, she has worked with and raised millions of dollars for communities in the US, India, Cambodia, Haiti and Africa—teaching yoga, providing support for child laborers, and educating people about HIV/AIDS prevention.

I come into Seane’s presence and feel peace: All is well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well. She is DEEP but she is also JOY! Look at her:

Valarie and Jacqui and Seane and Jennifer and I will be your hosts for this ride. WE ARE GOING TO RALLY. We are going to weep and laugh and yell and hug and sing together. We are going to pull leaders up on stage. We are going to pull YOU up on stage to to tell us your story and what is burning in your heart. We will share it all.

We will also have very, very special guests joining at each of the stops on the tour — I can’t wait to tell you who they are (more on that very soon). And next year they’ll be more dates. We have only just begun. We were MADE FOR JUST SUCH A TIME AS THIS.

There is a plan to bring love and unity into this moment of uncertainty and fear, and that plan is us. Together. We are the ones we have been waiting for.

My best friend who is really like a sister to me recommended your site to me quite a while ago. I never thought it would be for me because of the title and the fact that she is a single mother. I have no children and I just really didn’t want to join in on that part of sisterhood that I’ve never experienced first hand. Talk about the proverbial ‘never judge a book by it’s cover’. About a month ago she shared something with me from your site and I read it. And I was so blown away that I downloaded your first warrior book, I subscribed to your site and I started following you on Facebook. But then, I started reading the book … I am a warrior and I didn’t even know it.
You see, I’m sort of the opposite of you. I had this crazy childhood with a crazy father and had every reason to do all the crazy things you did – from an early age. My fear was becoming a statistic. Everyone else’s fear is that I would have been like you and like my father: an addictive personality type. My story is all about living everyone else’s expectations until I completely lost it and had a bit of a breakdown.
In this particular post of yours you mention that when you start to create something new you question; who am I in this moment. This is the same question I had to ask all those people who rejected me when I got over my breakdown and started living my true authentic life. The way I was treated, you would have thought I did all the drugs and alcohol. You would have thought that I walked right in my father’s alcoholic shoes and treated everyone around me badly with the way I was treated; heck they never even treated my father that badly!!
And then one day it dawned on me; who would I be if I weren’t being treated this way? Clear as day I knew how to behave towards those with whom I’d fallen out of favor. I am free now and I no longer go out of my way to keep those people in my circle but because they are family I remain true to myself and treat them the way I feel in my heart that I should. I feel healthy and like I have broken the addictive circle that my father and my father’s father and the father before him all created.
Sorry for sending War and Peace, but I was just moved and had to write something. Thank you for who you are and for your influence in the world.

I so subscribe to your feelings that I pre-ordered your book! Deep in my faith I know when I feel love, from me and for me. I know when a person (male or female) is centered there…

The dilemma facing us is right now we have a “Wizard of Oz” situation where the presumptive Dem nominee for president IS a woman. And she is not an honest truthful woman. She lauds war and using invasion as a tactic to control other countries. An even more loving feminine leader is in fact a 74-yo man. Millions would like to see this pacifist in a leadership position, but the system is stacked against him. What do you say to yourself when the best leader is, in fact, not the woman.

Mary Ann,
I’m here with you.. At my rock bottom. Not knowing the “right”!thing for me and my family. My babies (5yrs old) but still my babies. I’m hurting. I have to get up and go to a job in 4 hrs that requires a lot intellectual attention to detail and social interaction. I’m struggling. I’m so tired but my brain and tummy are burning with ache. My heart is numb.

Please come back to Pittsburgh! We loved seeing you last time and would love to have you back! I would actually love to see you come to the college where I teach. I think your message is something our young people need to hear to being the Love Revolution while they are still young enough to make a huge difference for a long time!

To me, you are empathy. You are acceptance. And I am grateful for you and am so glad you chose to share this personal journey with the rest of us. I’m sure it will resonate with anyone who has dared to love another.

G- I just bought my ticket for the Portland Event – I am thrilled it is 5 blocks from my house! LOVE this! I had been praying you would come to the PNW and here you are AND your are bringing friends! I am so excited for this. At first I felt awkward buying one ticket and coming alone, but I soon realized this is an incredible opportunity to be surround with amazing women and make some new friends. I am already feeling stretched. Perfect.

My wife sent me this link because she was so excited to share it with me and tell me that she’s buying tickets for her and two of her girl friends… and I’m here to say, I WANT TO GO TOO!! Truly, this looks amazing.

No really, as the father of three daughters, I believe that it is the women of this world who are leading the non-violent revolution against the forces of hatred and violence – and I stand with you. I am helping to raise my daughters to be warriors; love warriors.

Thank you for everything you do, write, say, stand-up for. I imagine it can’t be easy. I know it is not easy… so – thank you. For being brave. For leading US through honest writing, and by example.

Anywhere in KY!!! Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati (I know, it’s OH, but it’s basically KY), Paducah, Morehead (let’s show Kim Davis what a Love Warrior looks like!), or even Nashville. Please, please, pretty pleassssssseeeee???? I will do anything at all I can to help make that happen.

I so totally CAN NOT BELIEVE IT! You are finally coming to my city and I’m going to be at a nursing conference!!! WAH!!!!! I want to meet you in person so bad sometime. Maybe another time.
Sounds like a fantastic event!

Yes, yes, a thousand times YES! Love IS the answer and WE ARE the one (s) we’ve been waiting for! Rise up love warriors, let’s do this! Hurt people hurt others! The only way to heal that hurt is through love.

Fargo, ND would show up!!! Minneapolis would work too! 🙂
Unity through love, let’s show the world how it”s done.

I was so excited to see you would be coming to Portland, as I live in WA and that’s only about 2 hours away. However, when I tried the link I get this error: “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later. ”
I kind of agree with the other monkees who are saying your LOVE broke the internet 😉
Please advise!
Patty

Tried the link and I get this error: “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later. ”

Tried emailing and email was rejected by the server… so is there any hope of getting tix still?

Portland! G, I prayed that you would come to the PNW and you are coming! But I waited to login to buy tickets until the kids were in bed and apparently, your love breaks the internet. Super worried that I won’t be able to get tickets. Help!

I bet you posted this and ran and hid… because this was a great big deal—and what if no one showed up? 🙂 But we all did, and I know we did, because we broke the Internet. I mean, the INTERNET GOT BROKE because of the Love Warriors rushing to buy presale tickets to RALLY.

You are awesome. And I will wait patiently for the internet to put on its Big Girl Panties and get more bandwidth.

Hi there! Trying to get tickets for Portland and having tech issues with the registration. Just stopped working. Now trying to get back in to registration site and saying that bandwidth for server is full. Help! Will be so bummed if I can’t get tickets! So so excited to see you in Portland! Thanks!

I’ve been waiting since your first book release for you to come even somewhat close to my area for inspiration. You are a BRILLIANT and honest writer. I’m so dissapointed in the the issues. Can u get a tech person?
Love u Glennon

Glennon, FL needs your love too! This bi/disabled wife and mom is weeping to hear you, hug you, and pour out as much love as I can to all those who hurt. I can barely watch tv anymore, it hurts my heart so much.

I am so honored to know you from your book and blog. I can’t WAIT to get Warrior, right after my 24th anniversary 🙂 You have allowed God to speak thru you to reach the dark and hurting parts of my soul. Thank you.

I’m in, even if it’s from here, I’m praying for this Love Revolution!!!

I just bought my ticket for Chicago. I’m feeling terrifawesome, which is a word I invented recently for the increasingly frequent feeling of being terrified and awesome at the same time. I can’t even describe how right this feels-like God is standing and cheering me on to go join in this.
You are right. This is what we need. So I’m enlisting in the Love army. Thank you for being our general. I can’t wait to meet you. (I wanted to put something like “I hope I get to meet you” or “I can’t wait to see you” but I swear God shouted in my ear that I am supposed to say “I can’t wait to meet you” so that’s what I’m writing. Now I sound like a lunatic, but I’m a sincere and committed one anyway.)

Oh, please come to OKC next year, or even Dallas or Tulsa or somewhere close. I would love, love, love to hear you speak and be in the presence of such an amazing group of women! Everything you write resonates with me. I feel like you’re often in my head, writing down what I’m thinking, but much more gracefully and in a way that just touches everyone who reads your words. When you’re writing about your struggles with addiction, I feel like you are speaking as my sister, who is also trying to make her way in the world of sobriety. There are so many aspects of your life experience that strike a chord with me, and I just can’t imagine what it would be like to hear you speak in person. Please come somewhere close to the OKC area next time!!!

I was on the edge of my seat speed-reading your post. My brain registered the last line as WE WERE MADE FOR THIS MESS instead of what you actually wrote. I kinda like my brain’s version! Can’t wait for the book to arrive in my mailbox.

I’m so crazy that I burst into tears at the thought of being able to do this. It’s two hours from home on a weeknight and it’s not easy to get away from work early, and I have to go alone because I don’t think I can handle the feelings that are going to come up so I won’t be able to function like a normal person ( ie crying before, during, and after)…but I’m doing it. My heart needs this. Thanks.

With fear and trembling, I am going to try to be at the rally in Denver. I think I need to because I have been so afraid to go to that state because it is where I ran from fear. I think that if I get to go, I would love to see you but I think conquoring fear on a personal level, would be amazing.